


No pressure

by angellteeth



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Filbrick Pines is even more of a jerk in this one than the other one, Gen, Low detail descriptions of outright abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-22
Updated: 2020-07-22
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:02:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25452094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angellteeth/pseuds/angellteeth
Summary: The life and times of Stanford Pines, in which he goes through much less denial than Stanley.
Kudos: 18





	No pressure

7  
Stanford could swear he was the happiest damn child in all of Jersey. Going down to the beach every day to explore and mostly throw pebbles at seagulls with his brother, best time of his life. Really. Sure, Pa would always scold him, saying he had to act more mature because he was smart or whatever, but that was fine. Ma would always make sure chats like that didn't last too long, ushering the twins to the kitchen to help with dinner. She didn't want him to feel pressured. She was a good Ma like that.

12  
Ma couldn't do as much to make sure Pa didn't expect too much from him, but she tried her best. He appreciated her for that. Without her, it'd be unbearable to be in a room with Pa, his expectant stares burning holes through him. He couldn't even tell what Pa wanted from him most times. Just to be better, apparently. Stanley was much easier to get along with. He never expected much from him. Stanley just expect Stanford to be himself. No problem, he could do that.

15  
Had to be perfect. No pressure. Any less than perfect? Pa would smack him. He was used to it but he was so tired. He just wanted to relax, but he wasn't allowed to do that in this house. Even a slight slip in grades and his glasses would probably get confiscated as punishment till they were back up. If it weren't for Ma, it'd be worse. At least Stanley could make him laugh most days. He could get through all this. No pressure.

16  
So maybe he was jealous. Stanley could away with anything and barely had to try for Filbrick to be neutral with him. Filbrick never hit Stanley. At least he was pretty sure of that. He'd notice, and Stanley would tell him about it. Except Stanford never talked about it with Stanley so maybe that wasn't true... But Filbrick still barely looked at the other twin. Definitely not the best father-son relationship, but what he wouldn't give to just go unnoticed by Filbrick. At least summer was easier. Just had to get to summer and he'd be able to sleep easy, no pressure.

17 - The night before  
He couldn't stop shaking. He'd been shaking since the principal first called him in. There was too much pressure on him. Millions? He couldn't make millions. But still. Getting into that college meant getting away. He'd miss Stan and Ma but he couldn't stay. It was too much. Filbrick was too much. God he wanted to punch Filbrick, but that was unattainable. He'd just have to take solace in watching the sun set with Stan. It was nice to be believed in in a way that wasn't terrifying.

17 - The night  
No no no, it was broken. Stan broke it. How could Stan break it? Stan had never been malicious. Not towards him, at least. Maybe it was an accident. Maybe it wasn't. He couldn't tell. He was furious. And terrified. What would Fikbrick do to him? He'd kill him. Accident or no, he had to blame Stanley to save his own skin. Stan would be fine. Filbrick never laid a hand on him. Right? Of course. It was Stan's fault. Had to be. 

22  
He was out. Not a good college, but whatever. Didn't matter. He was out. He was safe. Safe enough, at least. Filbrick wasn't around to judge him. Mercilessly. He could make a name for himself, even from Backupsmore. He'd be fine. Stan was fine, too. Sometimes he wondered if he should reach out to Stan. No. If Stan wanted to talk, he'd talk. They would both be okay.

27  
No no no. Failure. Couldn't take another failure. He'd failed too much out there in Gravity Falls. And now he'd opened up an interdimensional portal straight to hell, basically. And his assistant was scarred. And Stanford hadn't slept in days. He was so tired. But he had to stay awake. Had to hide the last journal. Stan could do it. He was well travelled. He would be fine. He could trust Stan. It'd be fine. No pressure.

48  
He'd given up hope ages ago. Stanley wouldn't be getting him back. No one would. If not from incompetence, but because of the warnings. Though, Stanley was hopelessly stubborn and most of the warnings were in invisible ink... No, no. He shouldn't get his hopes up. He was stuck. It was fine. No hard feelings.

58 - First day of summer  
He was all geared up to kill Bill. He just needed a power source. It was his life's purpose now. Success didn't matter, nor did anomalies. Just destroying Bill. It's all he needed to do. No pressure.

58 - His return  
Everything was perfect. He'd had the shot lined up. Bill was about to die. When he was suddenly sucked back into his home dimension. Just a minute later. Stanley just had to be a minute later and everything would have been fine. He couldn't help but punch him. In the last thirty years, his anger management had started to slip. He really shouldn't be so mad, he knew that. Stan didn't know, he didn't mean to shove him in the first place. Didn't even know what the thing did. That didn't stop him.

58 - Weirdmageddon  
This couldn't be happening. He'd tried so hard to stop it. He had to stop it before it got too bad. Everything else could wait, he just had to shoot Bill. He always had good enough aim, he could do it. He could stop the apocalypse. No pressure. No pressure.

58 - Post Weirdmageddon  
This wasn't right. Stanley wasn't supposed to be the one to suffer for his mistakes. All this was supposed to be his own burden. Now Stanley was effectively dead. Stanford couldn't muster even a fraction of Mabel's optimism, even when Stan seemed to be getting a few memories back. He was just naturally pessimistic, apparently. No matter, he'd work double time to make Stan remember. He had to. It was the least he could do.

60 - Present  
He was having the time of his life, at sea with Stanley. Sure, sometimes they bickered but that was to be expected. They were too very stubborn men confined to a boat, after all. Their relationship was properly mended now, and the only thing that anyone was expecting from Stanford was that he stay alive another year. He still felt like he had a lot to make up for, but he didn't feel overwhelmed. He could take on the world again, with the help of his family. No pressure, for real this time.

**Author's Note:**

> He was very wrong about whether or not Filbrick would hit Stan, by the way.


End file.
